


Holding Out Hope

by SCythErk



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Matt Holt-centric, but he's not actually here, well Shiro's very much mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-11-13 21:47:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11194104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SCythErk/pseuds/SCythErk
Summary: Matt asks everyone he can about the gladiator fights, looks for any scrap of information. He has no idea if Shiro even survived that first fight, and he has to know.





	Holding Out Hope

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [In Need of Something Good Right Now](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7878805) by [BossToaster (ChaoticReactions)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticReactions/pseuds/BossToaster). 



After he's sent to the work camp Matt asks everyone he can about the gladiator fights, looks for any scrap of information. He has no idea if Shiro even survived that first fight. He knows the chances are small, Shiro is strong but it was against the reigning champion and he doesn't know and he has to _know_. He listens to the gossip of the guards when he can, asks every new worker who comes in, but the answer is always the same. 

"I don't know." 

"I'm sorry." 

"How long has it been?" 

He hates the increasingly pitying looks after his ever-lengthening answer to the last one. The glances away, the head shakes. "No one lasts long in the gladiator fights." they tell him. "If it's been so long and you haven't heard anything..." And he knows that, he does, but he doesn't want to believe it. Can't believe it. So he keeps asking. 

\---

Lately all the news of the gladiator fights has been about the Champion, the undefeated fighter with the mechanical arm. No one lasts long against him. 

"If your friend's been around as long as you say" they tell him pityingly "if he's made it that long he'll have had to fight Champion at some point. I'm sorry." 

Matt still doesn't want to believe it. Doesn't want to believe it because he doesn't know, but it's been so long. 

Sometimes he thinks he might hate this Champion. 

\---

A new worker comes, again. He hasn't been a prisoner of the Galra long; he doesn't know much. 

But "A human?" he asks. "Like you?” He give Matt an assessing look, and Matt’s breath halts in his lungs in anticipation. It’s probably nothing; he shouldn’t get his hopes up again, but maybe, maybe…

“There was one, I think.” He continues, and a tiny spark of hope flares to life again in Matt’s chest. “I was slated to go to the gladiator fights, until they decided I'd be more useful here. But there was a prisoner kind of like you there. We were kept apart, didn’t get a name or a good look at him. But we could talk, sometimes, if the guards weren’t paying attention. He was nice. Tried to reassure me when I was terrified of being sent to the arena. When I told him what was wrong with me” he gestures to himself, and Matt can't see anything wrong, but he doesn't know anything about alien biology and he's never seen an alien like this one before, so who knows "he told me maybe they'd change their minds and send me to the work camps instead. Said they did that with a friend of his." 

He looks at Matt, and Matt shakes his head, because he knows that look. That sad, pitying look they all give him. But this is worse. It's infinitely worse coming from this prisoner because he has news, real actual _news_ , about Shiro, it has to have been Shiro. He's _talked to him_. And if he's giving Matt that look... 

"I'm sorry." He says. And Matt's been looking for so long but he doesn't want to hear this. "They took him, for a gladiator fight. He... he never came back." 

\---

It's hard to hold on to hope, after that. It's the most solid answer he's ever gotten, the most solid answer he's ever likely to get, a part of him whispers, and it points pretty clearly to the fact that Shiro is... is...

He takes a deep breath, and allows himself to think it. 

That Shiro is dead. 

The thought hurts. Doubles him over and his stomach is twisting and his eyes are hot and prickly. He hears a whimper, and claps a hand over his mouth as he realizes it came from him. Everything feels entirely too close and sharp, and at the same time strangely distant, as if it's all happening to someone else. 

Shiro is dead. And it's my fault.

Ridiculous, another part of his brain announces. It's no one's fault but the Galra. They're the ones to blame. The ones who did this to you. Who did this to Shiro. 

He was protecting me, his guilt and grief whisper. If I'd been stronger, if I'd been there, if, if, if...

I'd be dead instead. We'd probably both be dead, by now. 

It doesn't make it any easier. 

Shiro made his choice. He did it for me, to save me. He wouldn't want me to feel guilty. 

Matt knows this, but it doesn't really make the guilt go away. 

Shiro wanted me to live, to survive, to find my dad and get home. 

And that thought does help. It motivates him, drives him back up to his feet from where he's collapsed on the floor. 

Shiro risked, _gave_ , his life to get me out. To get me somewhere safer, somewhere I have a chance. I can't, I _won't_ let it be in vain. I'm getting out of here, and I'm destroying the Galra, and I'm getting home. 

Matt clenches his fists, and starts to plan.

**Author's Note:**

> I was reading through BossToaster’s Spectrum verse, and I got to the last chapter of In Need of Something Good Right Now and got inspired. And then this happened. I just really like the idea of underground rebel Matt. 
> 
> So anyway, shout out to BossToaster for their awesome and inspiring work. If you haven't already, go check it out!


End file.
